She told regional press that the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) unveiled in Kigali last week could pull some EAC states into the new pact at the expense of their trade relations.

“This means the benefits going elsewhere...to the rest of African market instead of our internal market,” she said on the sidelines of a regional workshop on trade between EAC and the outside world.

CFTA was launched by leaders of the African Union (AU) member states in Kigali on March 21, and the continental body hopes that it will be the world’s largest single market with a cumulative GDP of $3.4 trillion.

Leaders from some 44 African countries out of 55 signed up for the trade deal while more others committed to the deal through assenting to the Kigali Declaration.

The milestone agreement is seen as a key part of AU’s long-term development plan, Agenda 2063, which calls for easing of trade and travel across the continent.

The pact came in the wake of advanced talks on a tripartite trade area comprising the EAC, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and South African Development Community (Sadc), constituting more than 60 per cent of Africa’s GDP and half of the continent’s population of 1.2 billion.

But Awinja said the EAC may not immediately benefit from the continental trade agreement unless it addressed impediments hindering its intra-regional trade.

“Non-tariff barriers inhibiting our trade have never been fully resolved,” she said, noting that CFTA will benefit EAC “if it will have additional inputs that will consolidate our market”.

The EAC director general of Customs and Trade, Kenneth Bagamuhunda, said CFTA should be preceded by full implementation of the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) bringing together EAC, Comesa and Sadc. “The TFTA is the stepping stone to the CFTA because the only thing that remains is TFTA’s implementation,” he said.